<em>'The Conjuring 2'</em>, oof. What a chore to sit through. The only redeeming quality I have for this film is Madison Wolfe's performance as Janet, which is fairly impressive for a youngster. That aside, I have nothing that I can praise or even mark as better than mid, sadly. The 2hr+ run time obviously doesn't help, but that actually isn't even a major negative for this movie. The plot, which feels like a rehash of the 2013 original in most (if not all) areas, is just so bloated and boring, I initially thought the English-ify of the story would bring freshness but, aside from the amusingly bad cockney accents, it's barely noticeable when in yet another dingy house. <b>[bit of a spoiler on the way]</b> The demons felt like a drop-off from the first flick, I admit the Bill character turned out to be a tiny bit more interesting than I thought it was going to be early on. Even then, I wanted a little bit of resolution with Bill once 'the end' happens (with Anita too). Unless it happened and I was already mentally zoned out by then, possible I guess? I think another thing that affects my enjoyment is the lack of jeopardy for the human characters, once is fine but back-to-back? Like they put all the pieces in place to kill one of them off and then just bottle it right at the last minute; this one here, for example, would've been very meaningful too. That dog in the original must feel extremely hard done by, ought to sue thy agent. I suppose it needs to cling to the "true event" (lol). Ah, I've just checked the general reception this received. Wow! Most of the time I question myself when I see that I am in the minority, I gotta be honest this time its on you guys - please do send me whatever it is you lot are smoking though! Joking aside, it would appear I'm in the wrong, the majority view speaks for itself, but damn... surprised to say the least! Just remembered that I did actually say in my review of <em>'Annabelle'</em> (5/10) hours ago that if it was any longer then I would've disliked it more. Well, step forward this movie. I didn't think the proof would arrive in the pudding so soon.

This is rated "R" and it's hard to believe...but let's face it, scary movies just aren't that scary anymore. Not that many of them ever were. And even then few have actually provided the constant nightmares of The Exorcist... But The Conjuring 2 feels like it's going for the PG scares to not lose audiences. The potential is there, but the director is flying with one hand on the chicken switch and pulls out of everything that's not worse than a jump-scare. We have the potential for an actual psychologically thrilling horror story here, but its a wasted potential. Ultimately, like every other horror movie made of late, it seems afraid to actually frighten people. Still, it's better than the torture porn on the market

Really solid sequel, and a re-watch before seeing the third film, in fact probably liked this one slightly better, with some good scares but better, a nice heart at the center with the relationship between Ed and Lorraine, played wonderfully by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Once again, craft-fully directed by James Wan, a style missing from the others in the 'Conjuring Universe', though the plots didn't help matters. **4.0/5**